Focus needed

Perhaps if Scotland had a government focused on governing we would have a country performing better than we currently are.

Last year the ruling SNP was massively distracted by an unnecessary referendum. This year it has allowed itself to be equally distracted with a Westminster election.

Next year it is the Holyrood elections, though arguably this is core business for them. Beyond that there is the potential distraction of a perpetual round of referenda until such time as power is won.

Meanwhile, back in reality, it cannot have escaped attention that things are not all rosy in our own back yard.

Only this week we had the result of the 2014 Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy that showed that levels have dropped since 2012 – not by a percentage point or so, but by up to 13 per cent points.

This is shameful for a country that boasts about it education, and it an area where one party has been in charge for many years. Even the education secretary was reduced to admitting that the results are “not as good as they should be”.

It would be easy to highlight other areas of neglect and decline (such as the NHS in Scotland), and difficult to find examples of real achievement. Governments have a responsibility to govern – for the people.

Banana republics have a few at the top who crave power and ignore this responsibility. I can only see the signs pointing one way with all these distractions.